Your Virtual Controller
My friends Marie Forleo + Laura Roeder, the B-School chicks, just released a
fantastic training video.
Here’s why you should watch it.
They’ll show you how four women owned businesses, in totally different industries,
have used online marketing to make more money and impact, fast.
We’re talking some pretty hefty pay days here. And get this…
In this day and age, anyone who is serious about their business needs to have a website. But your website can be so much more than just validation of your business existence. It can be a huge marketing tool. To illustrate that, I like to introduce you to our guest blogger Sandi Smith Leyva, who will share with you her “Top 10 Mistakes to Avoid on Your Website.”
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Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year, your Web site is presenting your company’s image and message to prospective clients all over the world. With this phenomenal reach, you want to make sure your best image and best message is coming across.
Perhaps your Web site is not generating the interest you’d like it to and you’d like to find out why. Maybe you’re just getting started in your new business and know you need a Web site, but don’t know where to start. Possibly your Web site is doing great, and you’d simply like to take it to the next level.
Whether creating a new site or updating your existing site, here are some common pitfalls to avoid.
1. UNPROFESSIONAL WRITING.
It’s easy to get so wrapped up in the Web design portion of a Web site and forget about the words that go on the pages. Maybe the Web designer does the design but not the writing. You might even find yourself writing the content at the last minute.
Good writing is far more important than bling, and great copy from a professional copywriter will get your phone ringing.
2. LOOKING LIKE ALL THE OTHER SITES OUT THERE.
Your business has something unique and different to offer its customers. Is that evident on your Web site? If not, you could be attracting the wrong type of customers, or worse, none at all.
When you hire a Webmaster, you’ll want to make sure that s/he will design your site for you and your customers and not for himself/herself.
Your Web site will shine when it emulates your company’s personality.
3. NOT MAXIMIZING THE EIGHT SECONDS YOU HAVE.
Web visitors – your potential prospects – will give you only eight seconds to wow them. Do you have your best stuff at the top of your home page? I mean the really good stuff, not just the stuff your mom is proud of!
You’ll want to capture the attention of potential customers using the item that brings out the best in you. It might be a great tag line, a killer testimonial, a big award, a blue chip client list, or the like.
4. NO CREDIBILITY.
Can Web visitors check out your reputation on the Web? You’ll want to make sure your Web site comes as close as possible to feeling like a warm, personal visit with you. Do this by posting content that is designed to build your credibility.
As an example, this can include content that shows you have a track record of success: testimonials, case studies of current clients, and a client list.
If you have been mentioned in the press, include a press page on your Web site that lists the newspapers, magazines, radio talk shows, and other places where you’ve been mentioned.
5. NO WAY TO CAPTURE INTERESTED LEADS.
People warm up slowly. Your Web visitors might be interested in you but are not quite ready to call you or buy anything yet.
You’ll want a way to keep track of these warm leads who will be ready to buy a few months down the road when they’ve gotten to know you better. There are several ways to gather leads from your Web site, depending on what you’re willing to offer them.
One method that is completely ineffective for capturing leads is to ask for information on your contact page. Just don’t do it!
6. NOT MARKETING YOUR SITE.
If you’ve spent all your money doing everything right, but you don’t market your site, you may not get any visitors.
You’ll need to spend at least a little time marketing your site through offline and online methods. For example, add your Web-site name to the bottom of every email that you send. You can do this automatically by modifying the signature file in your email software.
You may also want to delve into the more advanced fields of search engine marketing and optimization.
7. UNDER CONSTRUCTION.
Many people’s pet peeves is to click on a page and see an “Under Construction” message. It’s inconsiderate of people’s time to lead them down a dead-end alley, plus your Web site screams the message, “This person can’t finish what they start.” I’m sure that’s not the message you wish to send.
8. TOO MUCH BLING.
In the name of being cute, many Web sites display obnoxious moving parts, flashing signs, or vacuous videos. Did you know most people hate that stuff?
Bling doesn’t impress clients, except in three cases: kids’ sites, sites that sell luxury items, and entertainment sites. If you have one of those sites, then you need bling.
Limited bling is OK, timeless style is better, and meaningful, benefits-filled content is best.
9. NONWORKING LINKS, TYPOS, OR OTHER MISTAKES.
A site filled with errors tells me that its owner probably makes a lot of mistakes when delivering services. Even if the message is compelling, the red flag is there for people to see. People’s intuition will tell them not to do business with you. A quick and thorough testing of the site will avoid this pitfall.
10. NO GOALS.
A lot of people come to me saying, “I want a Web site.” I ask them, “What do you want it to do?” And they don’t really know.
It’s important to think about what you want your Web site to accomplish because that goal should be integral to the design of the site. The best sites lead their visitors to a certain outcome that is beneficial for both themselves and their customers.
When you can overcome these ten common problems, your Web site can start to become a powerful and effective marketing tool for your business.
| Sandi Smith Leyva is a marketing strategist who has helped people make money online. Her Web sites have paid back in as little as a week for some clients. A CPA/MBA, she has authored eight books, hundreds of articles, and several seminars and courses and gained her programming and project management skills in Fortune 500 IT departments. She brings a marketing focus to her Web site design clients and at the same time blends her business, programming, art, and writing backgrounds into the perfect combination of skills for Web site development.
Find out more about Sandi’s services and sign up for her free newsletter at http://www.sandismithdesign.com/ |
By Guest Author Michael Mills
Did you know that the average “bad hire” costs a company $60,000 in wasted compensation and training time! And that doesn’t include lost customers and upset prospects. I’ve found that business owners repeatedly make the same mistakes in their hiring process – if they even have a hiring process. Here are three key hiring mistakes:
1. Hiring Reactively. Almost all hiring mistakes stem from hiring in a crisis. Although it may seem like a waste of time to engage in a formal recruitment and hiring process, especially if you know someone who seems to fit the bill, hiring without a strategy almost always leads to frustration, disappointment and wasted expense.
Taking time to outline a job description, advertise the position and interview people and assess them based on their ability to fulfill on the position yields a much higher success rate. Although you may know someone who is smart or helpful, can he or she really contribute to your organization more productively than other candidates on the market?
2. Sugarcoating the Position. Often the first positions we hire others to fill are those we don’t like to do ourselves. Our dislike for the job may show during the interview process.
In the early days of my business, for example, I wanted to hire a telemarketer to make calls all day – something no one in my organization liked to do. When candidates came to interview, I explained that if they did a good job they could grow into other roles in the organization. In essence, I sugarcoated the position by focusing on the growth potential of the position and not the requirements of the job itself. In three years, I went through four employees in this position! When I stopped sugarcoating the position and started outlining it honestly, I began to attract the right people for the job. Believe it or not, some people actually like telemarketing.
3. Hiring “Professionals.” Another mistake business owners commonly make is to hire the “professional”, someone with years of experience in a role. A seasoned professional typically commands a high salary and may resist being trained in the processes you’ve worked hard to develop and fine tune. Instead, find a candidate with the right qualities and skills for the job and who is open to being trained and managed.
Surefire Steps to Hiring Success
Here are a few steps to help you maximize your investment in hiring, training and retaining top employees.
1. Outline a Growth Strategy. If you haven’t already done so, formulate a clear vision of where you’d like your company to “go”. Once you’ve done this, you can identify what people you need to make your vision a reality.
Next, Create an organizational chart of your future company and ask yourself; “When will I need to hire someone next and in what position?” Once you’ve answered that, ask yourself; “What do I need to have in place to hire that person?”
If it’s a salesperson, for example, you’ll need a job description and a set of systems to help the person do the job well – including systems for lead generation and sales conversion. In addition, you’ll want to have a clear idea of the initial salary offer and the maximum amount you can pay this person to support your profitability model. Identifying the maximum figure lets you know not only where the salary will top out but how to structure a raise and incentive plan for points along the way.
2. Develop Comprehensive Job Descriptions. How do you know whether a candidate will excel at the job? See how well the person measures up against an objective, detailed job description.
To create a job description, list the tasks that comprise the job, the objective of each task and what the employee will be accountable for producing. Then, turn the job description into an interviewing tool by also identifying the qualities, skills and experience a candidate would need to succeed in performing the tasks listed in the job description. As you interview each candidate, evaluate the interviewee according to this set of criteria.
3. Use the Job Description as a Training Checklist. Once you’ve hired the right candidate, don’t toss the job description! Instead, turn it into a training checklist to ensure that your new hire has an understanding of your company’s systems to excel at each and every task. Without a documented training process, employees typically retain about 18 percent of what you tell them. By turning the job description into a training checklist, you are setting up your new hire to meet or exceed your expectations.
| At Business Design Corporation, Michael assists owners and managers in developing their business into one that can run smoothly, efficiently and reliably. Their tools and programs will help you build a process dependant business – one in which you are in control. If you would like more information on how to find and keep loyal employees who do what they’re expected to do because they understand what is expected of them, you can call them at (888) 522-2325 or find them on-line at http://www.businessdesigncorp.com/.
Want to finally get the freedom you started your business for in the first place? More here: http://tiny.cc/cohenconsulting |
Do everything yourself so you can save moneyWhen you’re an entrepreneur in the beginning, it is often necessary to wear many hats. But there comes a time when you are going to just keep spinning your wheels if you don’t delegate some of the functions in your business. Do you ever find yourself saying any of these things:
Well, maybe you’re beyond that now. Maybe you have hired someone to do your bookkeeping …your admin person. How’s that working for you?
Do yourself a favor. Turn some of those bookkeeping and accounting responsibilities over to people you can trust to get the job done right. Leverage your admin/bookkeeper’s effort with guidance and supervision from the trained professionals at Cohen Consulting Group. Quit running your business from the seat of your pants. With timely and accurate reporting, you can make more informed decisions about your business. And the time saving benefits will allow you to focus on what you do best.
Don’t wait. Contact us now for more information.
In my view, the very best program on TV today for ANY business is Your Questions, Your Money on the Fox Business Network. It’s on Saturday mornings from 7:00am to 11:00am PT. Yes, I know, who has 4 hours to spend watching TV on a Saturday morning? The sad truth is that most of us do watch 4 hours or more of TV every evening, a lot of which is totally useless. But I digress.
The show features guest experts who address callers questions. The first two hours of the program general covers personal finances, investing, taxes, IRAs etc. The second two hours are dedicated to business; marketing, selling, growing, running, financing, inventing, you name it. I tape the show each week and watch parts of it through out the following week as time permits. I always pick up new ideas or insights.
You don’t get the Fox Business Network? Well, don’t despair. www.hulu.com shows one-hour episodes from the show. They don’t have all the shows but they have some great episodes. Go look at Saturday, December 5, 2009 with Gary Vaynercheck before they take it down. He’s awesome.
The world of business is changing rapidly. Your Questions, Your Money will keep you informed and inspired.
Last week a few of my clients and I sat down to watch Tony Robbins interview Marie Forleo, a best-selling author, speaker, Nike Athlete & Master Trainer, dancer/choreographer.. Oh hell, let’s just cut to the chase, an incredible, diversely successful female entrepreneur known for being “Rich, Happy & Hot”. She has so much to teach all of us business owners (not just women entrepreneurs). One of the pearls I gleaned from her was that confidence is over-rated. In fact she flat out said “Get over wanting to feel confident.” She tells us to take an action and bypass the feeling of lack of confidence. So after months of knowing I needed to start a blog, here I am doing it.
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The account on your income statement called Cost of Goods Sold can be confusing to non-accountants. In this article, we’ll attempt to de-mystify it and explain how it works.
Cost of Goods Sold is an account in your Chart of Accounts that is a very special type of expense. It is the amount of direct costs of items that were sold by the company. It is related to inventory, and it helps to see the flow of transactions to understand the big picture.
When you purchase an inventory item for sale, it’s considered an asset (not an expense yet) in your company. When you sell an inventory item, the asset is reduced and the Cost of Goods Sold account is increased, moving the item from an asset to an expense. It’s no longer an asset once it’s sold, and the cost of the item sold reduces your profit and is expensed into the Cost of Goods Sold account.
Some accountants will abbreviate the Cost of Goods Sold account to COGS, and you might hear them call it that.
In the case of wholesale and retail businesses, the cost of goods sold is the amount that was paid for the inventory items to be sold. In the case of a manufacturer, the costs can include the cost of raw materials, labor to produce the item, and sometimes additional allocations of other related costs. Construction businesses may have a Cost of Construction account or Contract Costs instead of COGS. Service businesses will typically not have a balance in the Cost of Goods Sold account. If they do have direct costs, the costs are often coded to a Supplies account under expenses.
At any point in time, the cost of items you purchase are in two different accounts:
It’s important that the Cost of Goods Sold balance is accurate, because there are many good things you can learn from it when you compare it with inventory. You can learn how fast your inventory is selling, and you can determine your gross profit margin.
If your inventory purchases have not been coded correctly, you can take inventory and arrive at the correct cost of unsold items. If your physical inventory does not match your books, your accountant can make a correcting entry between Cost of Goods Sold and the Inventory account so that both of them are accurate.
If you have further questions about the Cost of Goods Sold account, feel free to reach out any time.
Can you believe that half of 2019 is gone already? That means it’s a great time to take stock of how your business has done for the first half of 2019 so that you can meet your financial goals for the entire year.
On Track for Sales
Are you on track to make your 2019 revenue number? The first step is to check your 2019 budget numbers for total revenue. (Don’t have a budget? – Check with us; we’d be delighted to discuss that service with you.)
Next, get your Income Statement for June 2019 Year-to-Date and check the revenue figure. Are you on track with your budget, or are you halfway there revenue-wise, accounting for seasonality? If so, pat yourself on the back! If not, what promotions will you put in place to boost your growth for the rest of 2019?
On Track for Profit
Looking at the same Income Statement, check your net income figure. Are you on track with what you planned? If so, great! If not, the reason is simple: it will be either lower sales than expected or higher expenses than expected.
If your expenses are too high, you’ll need to drill down into each of your expense accounts, including cost of goods sold, to see which ones are higher than expected. Were there some unanticipated costs? Does your pricing need adjusting? Do you need more volume to cover your costs? This is where we can help you with an analysis of where your opportunities are to increase profit.
On Track for Cash
One more place to look is your cash balance. It can be uncomfortable when you are running short of cash for your business. If your balance is lower than you’d like it to be, it could be because of some of the factors mentioned above. It could also be because you just purchased an asset like a truck. If you need help with improving your cash flow, that’s another thing we can help you with.
Mid-Year Review
This mid-year review can help you head off any small problems before they grow into big ones throughout the rest of the year. And it can keep you on track so you can meet your 2019 business goals.
Having repeat customers is essential to many businesses, and the key to keep clients coming back is to provide them with great customer service. Here are five ideas to rate your business’s savvy when it comes to serving customers well.
1. Make a great first impression.
When customers make a purchase from you, make them feel great about it by sending them a series of indoctrination emails. Congratulate them on the purchase, let them know how to get the most out of their new purchase, and encourage them to connect with you on social media and your mailing list.
2. Measure response time.
How fast do you answer prospect and customer questions? Social media has changed the game. Customers that reach out via social media platforms, their phones, chat, or messaging apps expect an immediate answer. Facebook even gives a badge to businesses who respond quickly and consistently.
Not only do businesses need to monitor messages coming in from a record number of places – email, phone, web forms, chat, social media, and more – they need to respond faster than ever.
Without measuring your response time, it’s hard to know how you’re doing, so putting measures in place is the first step to improving this customer service metric.
3. Publish clear policies.
Good customer service starts with setting clear expectations. Before a customer buys from you, they should be able to know what your return policy is in case something goes wrong. Some of the policies that should clearly be published online as well as at all customer-facing business locations include:
4. Encourage feedback.
Your best ideas for new products and services can come from your customers. Ask for feedback by sending customer satisfaction surveys and requests for testimonials and reviews. Read what customers have to say about your service so that you can make improvements as needed.
5. Check your ego at the door.
As small business owners, sometimes we need to be humble, especially when things go wrong. Be generous with apologies to customers; it will go a long way toward improving customer relations. If you’re at fault, admit it and make it right with the customer. Even if you’re “right,” find a way to explain to the customer so that they feel good about you and your business. Delivering great customer service can be a huge competitive advantage for your business. How does your business stack up against these five ideas? Try them, and watch your revenue grow.
Every business has customers, and while all customers are important, most entrepreneurs will agree that some customers are more important than others. This may be due to the amount of revenue the customer brings in, their ability to refer new clients to you, the interesting challenges of the customer, or another factor. It makes sense to identify these clients so you can spend more time with them or at least acknowledge them in some way.
How do you find out which clients have generated the most revenue with you? If you store customer data in your accounting system, you can run a report to generate the data you need. In QuickBooks, the report is called the Income by Customer Summary Report. In Xero, it’s called Income by Contact. If you do not store customer data in your accounting system, you may be able to generate a report from your billing system, shopping cart, or point-of-sale system.
The reports look like this: each row holds the customer name and the Income column holds total revenue by the customer. If your system allows you to sort the revenue field, do this in descending order. If not, you can export the data to Excel and sort it in Excel.
Once you’ve sorted the data, the answer is right in front of you. Your top customers based on revenue will show in order. These are the customers you may want to consider spending more time with. Schedule periodic lunches with them, give them a call on a regular basis, and send them a gift or thank you note once in a while. The report helps you organize your connection points with your top clients so you don’t miss an opportunity or forget to reach out to an important customer.
Run this report on a regular basis so that you’re focused on nurturing the most important relationships in your business. You can also look at trends to see if you’re losing revenue over time or gaining revenue with new clients. You can reach out to clients that are spending less with you to try to save the relationship before it’s too late. And you can get to know new clients that are growing with you so that you can grab even more business.
Make this report a regular activity in your business to stay close to what your customers are doing with you.
